Your Gaming Origins

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What are your gaming origins?

How old were you when you started gaming?

I don't remember. I think I was younger than 10. My memory is fuzzy back that far.

What did you start on? On a console? In the arcade? On a handheld? Or on a PC?
My Uncle owned an Atari 2600. I saw it but wasn't allowed to play it because they were afraid I might break it.

At some point my Uncle got an NES (which I could watch but not play) and gave us his Atari. Me and my three sisters played the crap out of Asteriods, Pac Man, Missle Command, Phoenix, Pitfall, Yars Revenge, and Haunted House. I still have the console and games to this day.

What was the first console/PC/handheld you owned?
Me personally? It was a PC. I got tired of my Dad limiting my time on the family computer (a Cyrix 486 DX/2). So I built my own from parts I bought off of folks on the different BBS's I was a member of. With their help I managed to cobble together an Intel 486 DX/4 100 with a 2mb Vesa Local Bus video card.

Hell yeah. Ran Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and One Must Fall like a friggin champ.

It also helped that I'd tuned every BIOS setting, killed every non-essential TSR, and ran Memmaker and all that.

I would play DN3D all day with one of my friends from high school. He'd get pissed because his Cyrix 166+ ran all choppy so I would frag the piss out of him.

I got a dose of my own medicine though when I played against another friend who owned a Pentium Pro 233.

What was the game that initially drew you in?
That's a tough one... I can't really remember. Super Mario Bros. had me pining for an NES. Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage had me wanting a Sega Genesis. My NES wishes were granted after about a year. The Sega Genesis wish remained unfulfilled until just last year when my wife inherited her Grandfathers rental shop Sega Genesis and game collection.

What was your first favorite game?
That's a tough one. If there was a gun to my head right now I'd have to say Blaster Master for the NES.

But I remember playing Yar's Revenge and Journey Escape for the Atari 2600 for HOURS!

Etc.
Got back into my old school gaming last year. Had plans to launch a web series. Scripted out the first season restored my old consoles and started beefing up my collection. The web series project has stalled due to time (my current job is like a time swallowing black hole) and equipment issues (I need to get a solid video capture device).

[insektmute]

I started gaming somewhere around 1985, thanks to a neighbor friend down the street whose dad had a Commodore 64. He didn't have a ton of games, but I remember us putting in a fair bit of time playing stuff like Jump Man and Archon. It being the 80s, we also started going to arcades quite a bit, though most of what was around at that time consisted of old Atari stuff.

The first system I actually owned was the NES though, which thankfully also included a subscription to Nintendo Power, and introduced me to Dragon Warrior, which is probably the first game I ever became really, truly obsessed with. The SNES followed not long after, and that system (along with local arcades) really cemented my love of gaming for good. Final Fantasy II (4) and III (6), Super Metroid, Super Empire Strikes Back, Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, Street Fighter II Turbo... it was really an incredible time to be a gamer.

Around 1992, while driving home from some get-together or other, my Mom and I started needling my dad to stop in at this store off the highway so we could "just look" at the computers. 25 minutes later, we were headed home with a Micron 486SX 25Mhz and a copy of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.

Things kind of broke down for me in the mid 90s, though. I'd been a die-hard Nintendo fan, but absolutely hated everything about the N64, so I largely stopped console gaming. Being a cash-strapped teen, I couldn't really buy more games for the NES or SNES, the local video stores gradually stopped carrying them, and being a teenager in need of cash, I sold all of the NES stuff and all but two of my SNES games. I do still have the old SNES though, along with DKC and Super Metroid, and almost everything else I had I thankfully do have on another system now.

Anyway, Nintendo had pretty much alienated me from console gaming entirely, so I dove into PC gaming exclusively, until a friend casually mentioned Final Fantasy 7 and started showing off his PlayStation, which just totally blew me away at the time. The timing couldn't have been better too, because I'd just gotten my first real job as a clerk at Blockbuster Video

[spac316]

-How old were you when you started gaming?
I was at least 3 or 4 years old.

-What did you start on? On a console? In the arcade? On a handheld? Or on a PC?
A console and some arcade games.

-What was the first console/PC/handheld you owned?
Atari 2600/VCS

-What was the game that initially drew you in?
Space Invaders for 2600

-What was your first favorite game?
Super Mario Bros.

[evilnick]

I started when I was 11 years old.  In June of that year, I managed to end up with pneumonia and spent two weeks in a hospital for that.  The hospital had two NES consoles on TV carts.  I spent every day with those consoles, except for one, when I guess I just forgot about them and watched TV.  Maybe I had visitors. 

After I got out, I had to have an NES.  I received an allowance of $7 per week (or something) at the time, and forced myself to save as much of that as possible (while feeding a baseball card habit) until, with some birthday and holiday money, I was able to buy my own NES Action Set, complete with the light gun, two controllers, Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt.  My mom thought Paperboy was a great game while I was in the hospital, and got it for my brother and I to share on my NES. 

The next games we got were Rolling Thunder (unlicensed), Ironsword: Wizards and Warriors II, and The Legend of Zelda--which was purchased by chance because it was $20 new.  The original Zelda was the first game I ever finished.

[mrnikon]

-I first played video games back in 1986 when I was 6...

-It was an Atari 2600 at my friend Jennifer's house (she lived across the alley from me)

-The first Console I owned was the NES I think we got it in about 88 or 89

-There wasn't a game that drew me in it was just getting the system hell I was 8 or 9 at the time and just getting  Nintendo was cool enough.

-my first favorite game was SMB/Duck hunt or Rad Racer.

[soera]

What are your gaming origins?

-How old were you when you started gaming?

I was in junior high. My mom brought home an Atari 2600 from a garage sale and was bringing home dozens of games every weekend. Once the NES came out in 85, I fell in love. I used to rent games every weekend with a buddy who lived 3 houses down and we would slaughter the games all night. Thats how I got the job being a game counselor at the local rental store. In 88 or 89, I got an SMS for Christmas (my mom absolutely refused to get me an NES but the SMS was cool. I actually am happy that she went that way cause it opened me up to the superior 8 bit system) then the next year, I did the 1990 NWC. I won the first day and got the invite to return the second day for the finals but I lost that day. It was then that I was asked to be a Nintendo game play counselor. I was going to go to school in Japan for gaming and then work at the Nintendo HQ in Redmond Washington but my parents werent willing to let me go. To this day, I wonder what would have happened if I started working for Nintendo in 1990.

-What did you start on? On a console? In the arcade? On a handheld? Or on a PC?

It was a toss up between arcade and console. When at home, it was of course was the consoles but I used to spend countless hours at the arcade. I eventually worked at 2 different arcades plus I was the arcade repair guy at a place like Celebration station. Handheld wise I did beta testing on the original Game Boy. PC gaming was only Everquest for me but I put 12 years into that and was the #1 rated bard in the world for over a year.

-What was the first console/PC/handheld you owned?

I already touched on this but its SMS/Emachine/Game Boy.

-What was the game that initially drew you in?

Hmmm. I think it was officially over the first time I saw Zelda. I can still remember the commercials.

-What was your first favorite game?

I would have to go with Black Tiger. I think I went almost 2 years in junior high without eating lunch cause I spent all my money on that game.

[DreamsDied13101]

-How old were you when you started gaming?

Somewhere around 4 years old.

-What did you start on? On a console? In the arcade? On a handheld? Or on a PC?

First game I played was a Tomy handheld called Caveman. Had a few other tabletop (handheld) games that I can't find details on.

-What was the first console/PC/handheld you owned?

Console - Atari 2600 / PC - Tandy TRS-80 / Handheld - Tomy Caveman   

-What was the game that initially drew you in?

First game that I actively sought and purchased myself without any outside influence was Q-Bert for 2600. The game was brutally hard for my age, but I loved it all the same.

-What was your first favorite game?

The first game that consumed my life (where every waking hour was spent thinking about it) was Super Mario Bros 2. Until I saw the ending I could think and do nothing else.